A FLORIDA doctor died when he developed a rare blood disorder after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine, according to reports.
Just three days after he received the Pfizer vaccine, Dr. Gregory Michael, 56, of Miami Beach developed symptoms for immune thrombocytopenia, a rare blood disorder that stops the creation of platelets, which are necessary for clotting.
Michael, an obstetrician, died in January from the disorder after treatments failed to restore his platelets to normal levels and after he spent two weeks in the hospital where died from a brain hemorrhage, the New York Times reports.
Others who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine also seemed to have developed the same disorder.
Luz Legaspi, 72, woke up to find bruises on her arms and legs and bleeding blisters in her mouth just a day after receiving her first dose of the Modern vaccine.
When she went to a New York City hospital, she was similarly diagnosed with the same blood disorder.
After Legaspi’s doctor got in touch with Michael’s doctor to see what his treatment was, Legaspi’s doctor took a different line of treatment which increased her platelet count from zero to 6,000, to 40,000 and to a healthy 71,000 within days.
Health experts, however, are asking the public not to rush to any conclusions about the vaccine – over 31 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of the vaccine – and only 37 people have developed such a disorder.
Officials stress that the 37 cases reported only show problems described by health care providers or patients after vaccination, and does not indicate whether the vaccinations themselves caused the disorder.
The Food and Drug Administration as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they were looking into the cases, but said the rates of immune thrombocytopenia among the vaccinated population mirrors that of the US population.